Surgical scrapers currently in use are one piece devices which are provided to surgeons by hospitals as common surgical facility tools. Surgical scrapers are utilized to separate tissue (e.g. muscle, etc.) from bone, such as when performing various spinal fusion procedures where the bone must be exposed for effective operation on the vertebra. One such scraper is known in the art as a “Cobb Elevator.” Such a scraper has a rigid elongate body extending from a handle at a proximal end to a distal end, spaced from the handle by an arm. The distal end has a tip that is sharpened to do the scraping.
To function properly, a surgical scraper must have a sharp scraping edge at its tip. In use, this sharp edge wears off quickly. Because the surgeon typically does not have control over when a scraper gets sharpened, or how well it gets sharpened, when a surgeon is handed a sterilized scraper during surgery, the surgeon is often required to then use that surgical scraper which has either not been properly sharpened and/or has become dull or damaged (e.g. notched) since its last sharpening. Accordingly, a need exists for a surgical scraper which has a replaceable blade. Such a surgical scraper would always have a new (or newly refurbished) sharp blade available for use, which blade would be typically disposed of after each use, but which could be separately sterilizable, refurbished and reused.